In February 2014, the Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicsSA) released the results of an opinion survey on Chinese business in Africa. “Africans are generally negative about the impact of Chinese business on the continent,” EthicsSA announced. “This is the key finding.”

Even though the findings surprisingly contradict other public opinion surveys, which are generally positive about China’s impact in Africa, they have been cited multiple times by reporters and researchers. Yet I have never seen any critique of the selection and confirmation biases in their (pretty flawed) methodology.